When race and religion are the issues

Eddie Hoo, The Heat Malaysia

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has urged leaders of political parties not to touch on race and religion during the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections to maintain harmony in the country.

He said leaders of political parties should be more responsible and ethical in ensuring that sensitive issues were not raised among the multi-ethnic and multi-religious population in Malaysia.

Are these politicians stoking the fire? They are asking why race-based and religion-linked contentions are allowed to be fester when it fits the political agenda of the ruling coalition. They are challenging the authorities to act on their own politicians who got away scot-free despite their racially tainted speeches and actions.

Case in point is the ‘Panggil Cina babi tidak salah’ billboard which featured Red Shirt poster boy Datuk Jamal Yunos, who is the Sungai Besar Umno chief.

The DAP received a lot of flak for this particular billboard. It was strikingly bold and deemed too provocative. Nevertheless it asked a pertinent question, which the public at large has also asked and the authorities have yet to answer —wasn’t it wrong to use that derogatory phrase?

As the government of the day, it is duty-bound to ensure peace in the country. In a plural society, any racially provocative stand is a red flag that must be addressed immediately.

That billboard was too bold, but even more brazen was the original statement itself. Two wrongs don’t make one right, but an earlier infraction was ignored and allowed to inflame a tense moment when our society was, without a doubt, delicate.

There are many issues afflicting and affecting the country. Economically our ringgit is weak, our consumer sentiment is low, and commodity prices have taken a beating. Our dependence on oil-related revenue and an ever-growing foreign workforce is worrying.

The increading influence of Islamic State and the shift towards fundamentalism continue to test our secular country. The push for hudud implementation and the rise in moral policing spell out an unpalatable recipe.

With a former prime minister going full steam ahead in his bid to unseat the sitting prime minister, we are thrown into further predicament. Charges of political impropriety, political or personal donation, the 1MDB scandal — who are the keepers of truths here?

Then there is our electoral system, which is in need of more integrity, during campaigning, voting and the results.

We have race-pandering and populist policies on top of questionable government budgets with ridiculous leakages exposed year after year.

Meanwhile, the income gap continues to grow despite the introduction of a minimum wage. What about instilling a more competitive and meritocratic attitude towards work and promotion in the civil service?

From a national educational system in dire need of reform to the continued calls to close down vernacular schools, this divides us further.

It leads to more brain drain, where one in every 10 skilled Malaysians born in Malaysia chose to leave the country. This is twice the world average.

Should we talk about the rape of environment and remind ourselves of the bauxite disaster in Pahang and the land exploitation in Cameron Highlands?

Urban woes include unaffordable housing, monthly flash floods in the cities, the growing number of homeless and rising social ills. In the interiors, the land rights of the indigenous people are compromised and their education facility is appalling.

Our ailing automotive industry and national carrier have failed to turn around despite government intervention.

Issues are aplenty, but we must not fail to recognise that many of them have a common denominator — non-inclusive approaches towards policies and governance.

It is easy to point to a billboard, a physical object, as a symbol of an offensive and unacceptable stand. It takes much more effort to look beyond the apparent and understand the root causes of some of the ills that afflict us.